Kia Reliability

Hey guys, I'm thinking of getting a 2011 Kia Sorrento... to replace my 2000 Explorer. It's gotta pull family duty, and we take long trips at least 4times per year (which is why the SUV is needed, plus the occasional light trailer).

Is Kia reliable? I know they have a 5yr warrant, plus 10 year powertrain... But, is it gonna feel like a crapper at the end of those 5yrs, or is it going to by like my Honda and still feel like a great vehicle?

I have my cee'd sw since 2008 and it has had one or two problems. Anti roll link and boot lid corrosion from ill fitting licence plate lights. Sure they are specific to the cee'd sw but show that there could be small problems with other kia's.
It drives fine still and is ok on diesel; 5.5L/100k. Kia have been on the ball regarding warranty issues so far so i can't complain.
Will it feel like a crapper in the next few years? Slightly more than a honda i would say. But not much.

Although Kia rates lower than Hyundai on long term reliablilty and initial quality scores, I have to wonder if that is due to Kia selling to a different demographic. I see ads for Kia fishing for buyers with bad credit or no credit. College kids, young families with no extra money for proper oil changes, and so on.

I know one family locally with a Sedona minivan and they didn't buy tires for it until the tread wore down to the belts and the tire separated and went flat. Who knows if they are following the maintenance schedule. Even with that level of neglect, it has been a good van so far.

Hyundai has come a long way, even in the last five years, and the five year old Hyundai used cars out there seem like they're holding together pretty well.

KIa reliability took a big jump upward when it merged with Hyundai. My wife and I have owned Hyundais since 1994, and found them quite reliable. My son is still driving our '94 Elantra. Our daughter is still driving Tammy's '00 Elantra. Tammy's driving our '06 Elantra. All have been major problem-free. The '94 and '00 have both had window regulator problems - a total of 5 windows involved.

I rented a Kia Rio this Spring for a 3600 mile drive through 9 states. Trouble free, and I averaged 43.7 mpg. Would have averaged 45 mpg, if not for 2 South Dakota days with >45 mpg crosswinds.

The civic started a steep decline towards 100k miles, needing axle boots or shafts yearly. The final cut the timing belt snapped... buh bye civic, hello reading the owners manual yearly henceforce . The accord left me stranded on 4 separate occasions with a bad coil pack, and a truly idiotic dealer. That one also needed a new half shaft, exhaust from the b pipe back, radiator, headlight stalk, etc. It also started going downhill after 100k.

The two chryslers... meh, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. However, I didn't purchase either. The caravan was my first car, and in 6 months time (was our family hauler) it lost cruise control, suffered all kinds of electrical bugs, and within 3 months of selling it blew out its transmission. The LeBaron had a 16 page service history from the local car service place over 6 years of ownership... 16 pages!! It had a turbo rebuild, 5 or more heater cores, coil packs, struts/shocks, sway bar bushings, tie rods, on and on and on.

The escape blew its transmission at 35,927 miles... JUST on the good side of the warranty, and it was acting up again at 100k. It also went through pads/rotors like butter (by desing, so it seems), had MAF clogging issues. Otherwise, not much went wrong with it... and it was a first model year run, and fairly on in that run at that.

The prius just give up a CEL... but it's a known issue with 04/05 models. It's covered under a TSB, but since it's no longer in warranty, $350 needs to leave my pocket to fix it. It's the stupid valve to the thermos getting stuck, so it's remaining unfixed for now.

The elantra was purchased new, and had a coil pack blow out, and tore the flew pipe. That, and my inability to fix the flex pipe in a timely fashion, destroyed both cats. The cats were replaced under warranty. The only other major issue was having to replace 2 window regulators. It just kept going, and having sold it last year at 135k miles, I saw it about a month back tooling around for its new family. The sedona's only issue is a battery drain due to some oddball door locking glitch that is serviced by a TSB... but I have no time to get it in to be fixed.

Conclusions? Hyundai/Kia FTW. I like the Prius, but if there had been a hybrid Elantra or Soul, I would have purchased either of those in a heartbeat. My next car after the Prius departs is going to be a kia/hyundai again.

The honda's... likely. I was 16 when I got the civic, and 21 when I got the accord. Both were sticks, and I tended to drive them like I stole them . But I think NEPA winters had the biggest effect on the worse wear and tear. The accord was great, when it was garage kept. Within a year after I got it, it started rusting at the wheel wells. The Escape was just known for the tourqe converter to eat itself. I don't know what ford was thinking when they mated that transmission to an AWD vehicle... bad idea (tm).

NEPA winters? That's me! We bought our '04 Elantra in February just shy of 100k on it, from the original owner. I knew it was approaching the "perfect storm" of maintenance, being near 100k, but bought anyway. 94913 when we bought it, over 117k now (I know!). Timing belt as routine maintenance, ATF change (routine), tires.

Flex pipe broke on it, but that was $20 at autozone and 3 hours with a buddy who owns a welder - easy and inexpensive to fix.

That's all I've put into it. Oh, and headlights when one blew. I could perhaps use new struts and spark plugs/wires, but again, that's routine at 100+k miles.

I changed the bulbs on my 10 year old Elantra once in the entire life of the car... and that was only last year! I'd love to know where the heck they came from. The Sedona hasn't faired nearly as well as I'm on my third set of bulbs since purchasing it.

The local dealer here has "47mpg" magnet signs on the doors of the Rio and Optima hybrid. They explained that the number comes from the window sticker, where 40mpg highway is shown, and then in small print below, a low-to-high range of what drivers may get from the car. The 47 is the upper limit printed on the sticker.

Just about any one of us here can get 47 or better on the highway. The way people drive on most suburban highways (10-15 over the limit, constant use of the brake), I wouldn't be confident that they will get out of the high 30s.

The Monroney sticker has a range of highway mpg's for the 40 mpgUS highway rated Rio. 47 mpgUS is at the top and I am not sure what is on the bottom. It is a lot less than 40 however. This is the information where the dealership was creating their advertising from.

50 + out of the Rio with an AT is no problem but you cannot drive it like you stole it and expect EPA busting results.

I can't speak for Kia ... there MAY be a trend in Consumer Reports' reliability survey of Kias doing somewhat worse than their Hyundai counterparts, but CR has a lot less data on Kia than Hyundai. And previous iterations of the Sorento do not look good in that survey, and though the car was redesigned in 2011 and improved in reliability it still wasn't great. The CR prediction for news Sorentos is for reliability 29% below average.

But at least on balance, I think you can't go too wrong with most Hyundai/Kia models. Mine's too new to tell but has been great so far, and I hear nothing but good stories from other owners. My own experience with six Hondas has been that they were quite good over all but had a fair number of nickel-and-dime items to deal with once they get beyond 120k miles; my Subarus were better in that regard (maybe the best-built cars on the road IMO) but of course include unneeded-by-me AWD with its additional fuel costs and maintenance gotchas. So it's pretty much Hyundai, Toyota, Mazda or possibly Nissan for me.

The local dealer here has "47mpg" magnet signs on the doors of the Rio and Optima hybrid. They explained that the number comes from the window sticker, where 40mpg highway is shown, and then in small print below, a low-to-high range of what drivers may get from the car. The 47 is the upper limit printed on the sticker..

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I'm pretty sure that's illegal. Only the large numbers on the Monroney sticker maybe used in advertising.

I'm pretty sure that's illegal. Only the large numbers on the Monroney sticker maybe used in advertising.

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It's not advertising, it's decoration on two cars within the showroom. And I asked where the "47" came from and they told me right away, without any attempt to deceive. I don't think anyone would take those magnets very seriously. I told the salesman that if anyone buys one of those cars and makes noise about not getting 47mpg, call me and I will meet with them and show them how to get that 47. On either car, I could probably get 47 while driving in F minor (4 flats, for the non-musicians), meaning placard pressure.

I have read of a number of instances of the range of mpg used in advertising vs. the Monroney lately. The battery electrics are probably the worst culprits as I have seen hundreds of online adverts bragging about the 100 mile range on the UDDS when the EPA has the LEAF rated at just 73 miles AER per the 5-cycle tests.